The Dutch Highways and Waterways Agency (Rijkswaterstaat) and Consortium OpenIJ have achieved commercial closure for the new IJmuiden sea lock PPP, located at the mouth of the North Sea Canal to Amsterdam.

OpenIJ is a team composed of Royal BAM Group, Volker Wessels and DIF Infrastructure. The consortium will be responsible for design, construction, financing and maintenance of the new lock for a period of 26 years. The dredging activities would be carried out by subcontractors Boskalis and Van Oord.

The total project investment is estimated at €740 million (US$852 million).

The project aims to increase the sea access capacity to the Port of Amsterdam to 125 million tons per year through the construction of a new sea lock allowing new Panamx ships to enter the port.

The new, larger lock system will stimulate the local economy by offering space to the growing ships independent of the tidal levels. The new lock will be 70 meters wide, 500 meters long and 18 meters deep.

Construction works are scheduled to start by early 2016 and the new lock is expected to be available for shipping at the end of 2019.

IJmuiden is a port city in the Dutch province of North Holland and is the main town in the municipality of Velsen. It is located at the mouth of the North Sea Canal to Amsterdam, and lies approximately 17 kilometres north of Haarlem. The port of IJmuiden is the third port of the Netherlands.

Rijkswaterstaat, the Province of North Holland, the City of Amsterdam and Port of Amsterdam NV are working together in the realization of this new large sea lock at IJmuiden. The Municipality of Velsen is managing the planning procedures.